Amber alert over; mom, kids safe in Maine

ASSOCIATED PRESS

Updated 1:15 pm, Tuesday, May 13, 2014

VERNON -- Authorities found three missing Connecticut children and their mother safe in Maine on Tuesday morning shortly after a multistate Amber Alert was issued, and police took the mother into custody.

Jackie Morris, 32, and her three sons were found at a motel in Bangor, after she failed to return the children to their father after a weekend visit. The boys live with their father in Vernon, Connecticut, and Morris has visitation rights, police said.

Vernon police had said they were concerned for the boys' safety. Morris' relatives told officials that she had a history of mental illness.

Authorities were deciding on criminal charges against Morris. The boys -- 9-year-old Ryan Lewis and 7-year-old twins Dylan and Brandan Lewis -- were in the custody of Maine officials waiting for their father, Jason Lewis, to pick them up, Bangor police said.

The Amber Alert was issued shortly after 9:30 a.m. Tuesday and cancelled at around noon. Lewis called police Monday night to report that Morris hadn't returned his sons.

Morris recently returned to Connecticut after having lived in Maine, relatives told police. Vernon police said she appeared to be homeless and living in her car.

Morris and Lewis were involved in a child custody case in Rockville Superior Court in Connecticut that ended in November with a joint custody agreement that called for the boys to live with their father, while Morris had visitation rights, said Lewis' lawyer, Benjamin K. Potok. Potok described the custody case as "slightly contentious."

Morris was living in Southwick, Massachusetts, during the custody case last year, court records show.